Green Day fundraises for climate change at San Francisco’s Fillmore

East Bay punk legends Green Day played a very special hometown show at San Francisco’s famed venue, The Fillmore, on April 2nd. Marking their first performance in the Bay Area since their headlining performance at the music festival Outside Lands in 2022, the event was a fundraiser for the United Nations’ Right Here Right Now Global Climate Alliance, with proceeds benefiting the United Nations’ Human Rights climate justice initiatives and the Recording Academy’s MusiCares climate fund.

It’s not often that Green Day plays a small show at a 1,300 capacity venue.

With doors opening at 6:30pm, dozens of fans lined up around the block for their spot, along with others with hopeful signs asking for tickets at any price. Those lucky to get in, however, were treated to a potentially rare opportunity to hear the entirety of Green Day’s latest album Saviors as well as 2004’s American Idiot live, which has not been done since 2005. Their headlining stadium tour later this year kicks off at San Francisco’s Oracle Park — a venue with a 42,300 capacity. Instead of playing to nosebleeds in Section 317, Green Day was able to pull their focus to all fans with songs like “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Holiday”.

Following an opening set by Ultra Q, fronted by Billie Joe Armstrong’s son Jakob Danger, Green Day hit the stage and immediately launched into the opening track off Saviors. Dressed in a sports jacket and Cramps shirt, Armstrong and the crowd wasted no time taking the energy in the room from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds. Watching bassist Mike Dirnt move so effortlessly with each bass strum, watching Tre Cool fire away on his drum kit, and watching powerhouse Billie Joe Armstrong belt out the chorus of every song, is a memory, I’m sure, forever ingrained in everyone in attendance.

The group’s energy never faltered throughout their two-hour set.

Pockets of the crowd moshed in the pit, while others sang along and pumped their fists in the air for songs like “Goodnight Adelaide”, “Strange Days Are Here to Stay”, and “Bobby Sox”. It was undeniably hard to ignore the floors and the Fillmore’s chandeliers shake once the band led into American Idiot, notably during songs like “She’s a Rebel” and “Homecoming”. After the final chords of “Whatsername” faded out, it was clear that the band wasn’t quite done for the night. Green Day returned for a surprise two-song encore with “Minority” and “Basket Case”, the latter of which was not originally printed on the setlist. The entire night was a reminder of the impact Green Day has had on punk rock music and how much they still love playing small hometown shows.

Photography by Sabrina Poei

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